Truman Student-Athletes Earn Academic Accolades

A total of 224 Truman student-athletes received Academic All-Great Lakes Valley Conference honors for the 2016-17 school year.

The Academic All-GLVC honor is bestowed upon student-athletes who meet a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 or better during two semesters of an academic year. A record number of 2,974 conference athletes earned the recognition.

Not counting the 28 honorees from football associate members Lincoln University and Southwest Baptist University, the 2,946 honorees from full-time GLVC members averaged out to 184 selections per school, which broke last season’s record average of 160.

For Truman teams, football led the way with 42 honorees, followed by women’s cross country/track and field (26), women’s soccer (21), baseball (18), men’s cross country/track and field (17), men’s soccer (16), women’s swimming (16), softball (14), men’s swimming (10), volleyball (10), men’s basketball (9), women’s basketball (7), wrestling (7), men’s tennis (6), women’s golf (3) and women’s tennis (2).

Seven Truman squads earned the Team Academic All-GLVC Award for collectively maintaining a 3.30 or better grade point average for the academic year. They include softball (3.47), women’s cross country (3.47), women’s swimming and diving (3.47), women’s track and field (3.44), women’s soccer (3.40), men’s soccer (3.33) and men’s cross country (3.30).

Individual accolades include the GLVC Council of Presidents’ Academic Excellence Award, which exemplifies the outstanding student-athletes in the conference. Each honoree has exhausted his or her eligibility in the intercollegiate sport in which they participated and maintained at least a 3.5 grade point average throughout their academic career. In addition, to be eligible for the award, the student-athlete must have competed in the GLVC for a minimum of two years and completed 96 credit hours. A student-athlete can only earn the distinguished honor one time in his or her career.

Thirty student-athletes representing Truman were recipients of the GLVC Council of Presidents’ Academic Excellence Award, including football’s Dalton Powell, who was one of 11 GLVC students that met the highest standard of academic excellence by concluding their collegiate careers with an unblemished 4.0 cumulative GPA.

Additionally, for the first time since joining the GLVC, multiple Truman student-athletes were named Scholar-Athletes of the Year within the same season. Of the honorees for the 13 winter and spring sports, the Bulldogs were represented by Cory Myers for men’s basketball, Christa Reisinger for softball and Alison Strickler for women’s swimming and diving. Previously, a total of two Truman student-athletes had received this honor.

The league selects one student-athlete in each conference sport to be designated the GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The award is based upon athletic accomplishments, both team and individual, and academic performance in the season upon which the award is based. Each GLVC member has the opportunity to nominate one individual from its team for the award. Nominees must have a cumulative grade point average that meets Academic All-America standards (3.30), and freshmen and first-year transfers are not eligible for the award. The voting is completed by each member institution’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR).